First-world problem; or, ceci n'est pas un marketing survey

[firecat]

Lately I sometimes find myself idly shopping for a digital camera, an e-book reader, or a device that will put Google and email access in my pocket. I already have an iPod (the touchless variety) that I like because it's big enough to store my entire music/audiobook library, a cellphone that's nothing special except it has a qwerty keyboard, and a digital camera that I like because it's tiny and don't like because it doesn't have image stabilization.

It occurs to me that if I follow through on this shopping, I have a fundamental choice:

• Carry one device that does a mediocre job of most or all of these things and has one battery and power cord and computer cable and takes up one pocket in my backpack.
• Carry four or five devices that all do their respective functions very well and all use batteries and power cords and computer cables and backpack pockets.

It also occurs to me that people I know have solved this issue for themselves in various ways. So I'm soliciting anecdata. (Hey, it's cheaper than actually buying anything.)

Do you regularly carry portable device(s) that serve any of these functions? Why did you choose the devices you did? Are you happy with your current solution?

Digital camera
E-book reader
Cell phone
Wireless Internet
PDA
Music player

Comments

[trixtah]

Oh, and if isn't obvious, I'm not really big on device convergence. I would be able to play my music on my new phone (I rip it in a funny format), and probably also read e-books on it. However, I want something to read ebooks on that has a reasonable screen size, and using something that large would feel silly for a phone (sure, there are bluetooth headsets, but still). Also, I frankly would be seriously peeved if my phone died, and I had no music. Or anything to read. Multiple devices means some redundancy. Of course, some people love their iPhones and large Android phones essentially because they are PDAs + phone.